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According to this[1], SXSW brings Austin about $350 million annually. According to Wikipedia, Austin's annual GDP is about $1.5B so 350/1500 = roughly 23% of th

According to this[1], SXSW brings Austin about $350 million annually. According to Wikipedia, Austin's annual GDP is about $1.5B so 350/1500 = roughly 23% of the city's annual GDP. Anecdotally I know of many people who work year round to prepare for an event at SXSW and rely on it for their entire annual income. Cancelling SXSW is a big deal to this city. It hurts. It's not to be downplayed. [1] https://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/09-27-17-economic-impact-sxsw-348-million-super-bowl/ https://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/09-27-17-econom...

PeterStuer 6y ago
"SXSW brings Austin about $350 million annually." Is that $350 million into the city taxes, or just $350 million for some private citizens, apparently some of whom you know and for whom it is undoubtedly a big deal.
- giggles_giggles 6y ago
  It's $350 million in economic activity brought to or generated in the city, not in tax revenue. You can see the breakdown here. https://explore.sxsw.com/hubfs/2019%20SXSW%20Economic%20Impact%20Analysis%20-%2011.18.19%20OPT.pdf https://explore.sxsw.com/hubfs/2019%20SXSW%20Economic%20Impa...
Retric 6y ago
That GDP number is way off. 1.5B / 1 million people is 1,500$ per person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_area... Gives 146B in 2018. That’s 350M number is also extremely suspect, at a minimum including existing city residents as the hotel reservations are vastly below attendance. Still even assuming that 350M was correct and not ridiculously inflated it’s 350/146,000 = 0.2%.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- giggles_giggles 6y ago
  You're confusing GDP with GDP per capita, and also 350,000,000 / 1,460,000,000 = 0.23972602739 and to convert that to a percentage you multiply by 100 so you get 23.973% as the result.
  - Retric 6y ago
    The number from wikipedia was 146 Billion (26 Austin-Round Rock, TX 146,784 metropolitan statistical area in millions of dollars) if you looked at the link I gave. Which is 146,784,000,000, though you could argue the city is a smaller area. Remember, thousand 3 zeros, Million 6 zeros, Billion 9 zeroes. The GDP per capita was simply a sanity check showing how 1.4B must be wildly wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_area...
TheCoelacanth 6y ago
You're off by a factor of 100. Austin's GDP is ~$150 billion.

PeterStuer 6y ago

"SXSW brings Austin about $350 million annually." Is that $350 million into the city taxes, or just $350 million for some private citizens, apparently some of whom you know and for whom it is undoubtedly a big deal.

giggles_giggles 6y ago
It's $350 million in economic activity brought to or generated in the city, not in tax revenue. You can see the breakdown here. https://explore.sxsw.com/hubfs/2019%20SXSW%20Economic%20Impact%20Analysis%20-%2011.18.19%20OPT.pdf https://explore.sxsw.com/hubfs/2019%20SXSW%20Economic%20Impa...

Retric 6y ago

That GDP number is way off. 1.5B / 1 million people is 1,500$ per person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_area... Gives 146B in 2018. That’s 350M number is also extremely suspect, at a minimum including existing city residents as the hotel reservations are vastly below attendance. Still even assuming that 350M was correct and not ridiculously inflated it’s 350/146,000 = 0.2%.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
giggles_giggles 6y ago
You're confusing GDP with GDP per capita, and also 350,000,000 / 1,460,000,000 = 0.23972602739 and to convert that to a percentage you multiply by 100 so you get 23.973% as the result.
- Retric 6y ago
  The number from wikipedia was 146 Billion (26 Austin-Round Rock, TX 146,784 metropolitan statistical area in millions of dollars) if you looked at the link I gave. Which is 146,784,000,000, though you could argue the city is a smaller area. Remember, thousand 3 zeros, Million 6 zeros, Billion 9 zeroes. The GDP per capita was simply a sanity check showing how 1.4B must be wildly wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_areas_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._metropolitan_area...

TheCoelacanth 6y ago

You're off by a factor of 100. Austin's GDP is ~$150 billion.